Letters

I am not an oaf, as Mayor Sanders famously said, therefore I don’t love professional sports. But on the eve of my favorite shopping day of the year — Super Bowl Sunday — I have to say how much I enjoy Patrick Daugherty’s always smooth, surprising, amusing, interesting “Sporting Box.” Cool case in point: this week (January 29) we learn, among other factoids, that Tour de France cyclist Lance Armstrong is being sponsored by a bunch of heavy-duty business enterprises from the central Asian Republic of Kazakhstan.

Honest Amateur
via email

Lincoln Loophole

Thanks to Matt Potter for listing the last-minute corporate contributions to the San Diego Lincoln Club, an outfit that actually is a legal loophole money-laundry for the Southern California Republican Party (“Under the Radar,” January 29). Lincoln Club bucks could kill off only one threatening bird at a time here — crusading former City Attorney Mike Aguirre — and thus left the city council door open to electing Democrats Sherri Lightner and Marti Emerald. Potter failed to consider, however, that GOP council candidates Thalheimer and Boling also may have lost because their first names don’t end in the letter i.

Monaghan
via email

The Select Catholics

Jeff Smith’s review of Doubt (Theater Review, January 29) seems to take cardboard stereotypes of Roman Catholic religious seriously, the so-called authoritarian Sister Aloysius is opposed by an authoritarian man-dominated hierarchy and clergy. This, of course, is all nonsense derived from Theodor Adorno and people like that. Is the priest guilty? In the present secularist and Masonic-dominated culture, every priest is guilty, just for being a celibate, just as every nun is guilty for being chaste. Catholicism, as Benedict has rightly seen, is not for billions of people, but for a much smaller number. To be Roman Catholic is to arouse doubt as well as hatred in a world that hates chastity, hates Christ, and most certainly hates Rome. What was Mr. Shanley’s purpose? Unfortunately the reviewer failed miserably to see that the playwright set up these straw figures merely to capitalize on hatred. Doubtlessly, he succeeded.

Name Withheld
via voicemail

Be Mindful Of Where You Are

In response to “Just So Racist,” the letter on January 29 from the young lady from La Mesa who thought that one person’s answer to the question “What’s the best and worst thing about where you live?” (“Off the Cuff,” January 22) was a racist comment.

Well, I’m black, I live in San Diego, and the reality is that things are just the way that they are. And we need to know what to get angry about. It’s unfortunate, but the majority of crime is black-on-black crime. So we have our black brothers and sisters who don’t care about anybody, not even themselves, killing each other.

I don’t go into the depths of El Cajon at a particular time and by myself because there are some Caucasians who don’t like black people who live up in the hills of El Cajon. That’s reality. The Hispanics, you know, sometimes you don’t go down into the barrio at a particular time, if you’re not Spanish. You just don’t do that. Sometimes we just have to be mindful of where we should be and where we shouldn’t be.

But it’s unfortunate that the majority of the crime, when it’s black-on-black crime, is done by my black brothers and sisters. And I think it’s sad, and that’s what I’m mad about. And I’m so mad about that that I find it to be racist. They need to stop letting a white-man mentality guide them. They need to get into the library and need to be getting their education instead of hanging out on the street corners with another stupid adult that gives them guns.

So, just in response to Kenya De La Roche from La Mesa, it is something to be mad about, but let’s get mad about the right things to be mad about, and not necessarily what someone feels, because I’ll tell you that sometimes going onto 12th and Imperial late at night — my black brothers and sisters are hanging out, being drunk, and don’t care about nobody, including themselves — I’m scared.

Once again, I’m black. And Reader, I just want to thank you for keeping the opinions real. Sometimes I don’t like what you put down, but I’m going to call you on it. God bless.

Merry
via voice mail

Wall Street Nazis

I am writing in response to your slanderous article in the “Blurt” on page 72 about the Oxblood show at O’Connell’s (“Oi-o-Oi,” January 22). You seem like a very diverse publication, yet for some reason you couldn’t find someone who was actually educated about the skinhead and street punk subcultures to write an article about a band that attracts a large skinhead following.

Using the quote that the bar was filled with “Nazi skinheads” was completely unnecessary. Yes, there were several skinheads at the show, but there were about as many nazis as you would find at any place at anytime. There are nazis in frat houses, on Wall Street, there’s probably even a few in-the-closet ones working for your fine publication.

Since most members of Oxblood are Hispanic (and a previous vocalist for the band was black), they are the farthest thing from a nazi band. The band members and most of their followers call themselves sharps — skinheads against racial prejudice.

I understand that you were reporting on the tragic shooting that occurred outside of the club, but dragging the band and an entire subculture’s name through the mud while doing so is completely unnecessary. Saying that this show was filled with hatemongers and painting this picture that anyone with cropped hair is a nazi is completely inappropriate and actually creates more prejudice. Many groups sing about how tough life is on the streets of New York, but because this is a street rock band instead of a hip-hop band, they are considered nazi hooligans. So who’s being racist now?

Good letter. As a 61 year old black man that grew up in deep south Mississippi, and now living in North Park, it really bothers me about black-on-black crime. This is what Martin Luther King and others were talking about when they said "WE SHALL OVERCOME." Maybe we will get it right one day.

Chaos Rabbit,

I totally agree with you. If you live next to the train tracks, you get the noise.